NOTICE:

1. ICIE ANNUAL MEETING, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND

CAN THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT BE FIXED?

ICIE Annual Meeting to examine laws impacts, chances for reform

BOISE The Endangered Species Act has been a dismal failure, according to many who would like to see it actually save species and still provide for a healthy economy.

Whether and how it can be fixed will be the focus of the Idaho Council on Industry and the Environments 2005 annual meeting, set for Tuesday, Nov. 22. The program at the Boise Holiday Inn will run from 9:30 until 11:30 a.m., to be followed by a 30-minute membership meeting.

Part One of the program will deal with the ESAs impacts on Idaho and will feature:

Scott Nichols, former bureau chief at the Idaho Department of Lands, talking about land management impacts of ESA; Murray Feldman, attorney at Holland & Hart, talking about impacts on mining, land owners and recreationists; and Phil Davis, rancher and Valley County Commissioner, talking about impacts on agriculture and rural Idaho.

Part Two will deal with ESA reform legislation. Speakers will be:

Rick Agnew, attorney with Van Ness Feldman's Seattle office, discussing the reform bill which has passed the U.S. House of Representatives, and contrasting it with current law; Layne Bangerter, Idaho State Director of Natural Resources and Environment for U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, talking about the politics of ESA reform in the Congress.

Part Three will be a roundtable discussion with all the presenters and attendees on what must be done to make the ESA more efficient and effective.

The program is open to the public. Contact: Pat Barclay, 208-336-8508.

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2. CALFED REPORT RELEASED

This month brings the release of two documents relevant to the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. 1. The state's Little Hoover Commission has released a report on CALFED's governance, online at http://www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/report183.html.

2. And the state Department of Water Resources has released a report on revitalizing CALFED, online at http://www.calwater.ca.gov/Revitalizing_CALFED/Cal_Fed_Report_11-05.pdf.

The Little Hoover report was just released today. The DWR report is summarized on the ACWA Web site at www.acwa.com.

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AGENCY PRESS RELEASE:

3. RECLAMATION COMMISSIONER KEYS COMMENDS PASSAGE OF RURAL WATER LEGISLATION

RECLAMATION

Commissioner's Office

Washington, D.C.

Contact: Trudy Harlow, 202-513-0574 tharlow@usbr.gov

Brock Lowrance, 202-513-0683 blowrance@usbr.gov

For Release on: November 18, 2005

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys today praised the United States Senate's bi-partisan passage of legislation to establish a new program that would help rural Western communities meet their critical water supply challenges.

The Senate unanimously passed S.895, the Rural Water Supply Act of 2005, on the evening of Nov. 16. The bill, which now is ready for consideration in the House, addresses a serious water crisis in America, particularly among rural areas that by themselves don't have the resources to establish and maintain drinking water supplies.

Keys commended the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, especially Chairman Pete Domenici (R- N.M.) and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) for their leadership in drafting and shepherding the bill through the Senate.

"This legislation establishes a much-needed program in Reclamation for projects that have been managed on an ad hoc basis in the past," Keys said. "With this program, Reclamation will now be able to work with other government agencies to better coordinate rural water efforts." The legislation authorizes $20 million a year for the Bureau of Reclamation to provide guidance and technical assistance in the planning, design, and construction of rural water supply projects. The program would ensure that these projects are evaluated to ensure cost effectiveness and to promote long-term protection of water supplies.

The bill also would establish a loan guarantee program in Reclamation to help communities finance new water projects and pay for maintenance on existing water systems. The program would allow rural communities to obtain loans at interest rates far lower than loans not guaranteed by the federal government. The legislation also expedites the appraisal and feasibility study process to allow communities to find the best approach to meet their needs.

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NEWS ARTICLES:

4. N.Y TIMES EDITORIAL MISREPRESENTS POMBO

The Tracy Press

11-19-2005

A New York Times editorial on Halloween eve took issue with House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, a conservative Republican who has represented Tracy for 13 years in Congress. In “Pombo Time,” the editorial board of what in many circles is regarded as the nation’s newspaper of record, concludes, “Mr. Pombo’s only idea, and it is a terrible one, is to treat this nation the way he treats his Congressional [sic] district, as if it were ripe for exploitation.”

As his hometown paper, we are obligated to respond to this and other inaccuracies in the editorial.

The Times opines that Pombo has had a hard time staying out of the news lately. What the editorial doesn’t say is that the accusations about Pombo’s career in Washington are by biased political and special interest groups that in a concerted effort want to damage his re-election chances.

For the remainder of this article see: http://www.tracypress.com/voice/2005-11-19-our-voice.php

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5. POMBO IS DOING SOMETHING RIGHT

Raymond Keating

Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

11-18-2005

Extreme environmental groups do not like him. The liberal editorial page of The New York Times has attacked him.

And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has made him a high-profile target in the 2006 congressional elections.

Wow! Who is this guy? He must be doing something right.

For the remainder of this article see: http://www.tracypress.com/voice/2005-11-18-hisvoice.php

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6. SACRAMENTO RIVER SALMON AT HIGHEST POPULATION LEVEL IN 24 YEARS

By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer

Published 10:35 am PST Sunday, November 20, 2005

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Wildlife managers expect more than 15,000 endangered winter-run chinook salmon to thrash their way up the Sacramento River this year, the largest number in 24 years thanks to extraordinary and expensive efforts to save the species.

But there are a couple of caution flags: An unusually high percentage of the returning fish were born in a hatchery, while an improbably low proportion of dead male fish were found by biologists counting carcasses of the salmon, which die after breeding.

An estimated 18 percent are hatchery fish this year, up from the usual 5 percent to 10 percent. Biologists limit the number of hatchery fish to avoid contaminating the wild gene pool, but an unusually large number were released three years ago as an experiment.

For the remainder of this article see: http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/13884770p-14723817c.html

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7. TURNING WATER INTO GOLD

Liquid assets: first of four parts

By David Olinger and Chuck Plunkett

Denver Post Staff Writers FIRST OF FOUR PARTS

Article Last Updated: 11/20/2005 04:59 AM

Everyone who buys a house in Denver's growing suburbs pays a hidden price for water.

That first twist of the faucet in a new suburban home costs as much as $24,424 - more than twice the amount charged in any U.S. city outside metro Denver surveyed last year by the American Water Works Association.

In semi-arid Colorado, there are well-known reasons for the high cost of water service. Among them: scant reservoir space and an immense mountain range separating water from people.

For the remainder of this article see: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3235495

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8. STEEPED IN GREENHOUSE GAS, PINE TREES DEVIATE

By Cheryl Lyn Dybas

Special to The Washington Post

Monday, November 21, 2005; A06

From the air, they look like a cross between unexplained Midwestern crop circles and the megaliths of Stonehenge. But these tall structures loom out of a forest.

Arranged in a loop, the 100-foot-high by 100-foot-wide assemblages are releasing carbon dioxide, a colorless, odorless miasma that wafts through the loblolly pines they encircle.

The 50-foot-tall pines, natives of the Deep South, are subjects in an experiment by scientists at Duke University who are using this engineered micro-climate as a kind of time machine to find out how these trees are likely to react as carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere and temperatures climb.

For the remainder of this article see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/20/AR2005112000788.html

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9. CALIFORNIA'S CALAMITY IN WAITING

By Kevin Starr

Kevin Starr is University Professor and professor of history at USC. His latest book is "California: A History."

The LA Times

November 20, 2005

THINKING catastrophically should come naturally in this year of disaster. Instead, most California policymakers have distracted themselves with relatively minor matters, as with the recent special election.

Meanwhile, this state remains vulnerable to devastation that would combine elements of Pakistan's earthquake and New Orleans' flood.

The conversation turned almost casually to this tragic scenario as I dined recently with two Metropolitan Water District board members, David Farrar, an attorney representing the city of Los Angeles, and fifth-generation rancher Randy Record, who represents eastern Riverside County. With us was Ron Gastelum, interim president of the L.A. Chamber of Commerce, formerly the chief executive of the MWD. My companions were chillingly quick to agree that it is probable — and inevitable if no action is taken — that a quake will someday trigger a catastrophic failure of public works, and that this could prove Katrina-like in its effect. The following week, Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources, in testimony before a joint legislative committee, confirmed everything that Farrar, Record and Gastelum had been discussing.

For the remainder of this article see: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-starrlevees20nov20,1,7873952.story

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10. WATER-CLEANUP LIST GROWS

Officials warn of cascading costs to restore state's 'impaired' sites

By Terry Rodgers

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 18, 2005

The state's list of polluted streams, lakes and beaches continues to grow, prompting water experts to warn that the contamination will cost Californians billions of dollars to clean up and require changes in their routines.

In Southern California, water quality could be restored in several decades if every household were to pay an additional $4 to $5 per month, said John Robertus, executive officer of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The report, issued by the Water Resources Control Board, includes 825 "impaired" water bodies in California – an increase of 40 percent from 2003.

For the remainder of this article see: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20051118-9999-1n18water.html

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11. WATER ISSUE STAYS ON SIMMER

Question on purity, safety is unresolved

By Anne Krueger

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 19, 2005

LIVE OAK SPRINGS – Nazar Najor says the water he provides to this backcountry community is clean and safe.

But the county says its tests show the water is contaminated and has told residents for the past three weeks to boil their water before drinking it.

Caught in the middle are residents who say they're getting conflicting information about their water. Most are playing it safe.

For the remainder of this article see: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20051119-9999-2m19oak.html